- Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are apparently keen to reprise their roles for another season of True Detective, according to creator Nic Pizzolatto.
- “I have another story for Cohle and Hart… we’ve talked about getting back together and doing it and I think the guys are open to it,” he revealed.
- At the same time, HBO is gearing up for the production of the hit anthology series’ fifth season (this one set in Jamaica Bay, New York).
A few years ago, True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto sent fans into a meltdown with the revelation that he’d written a genuine sequel to the crime drama’s universally acclaimed debut season.
And just to dump a proverbial gasoline on the equally-proverbial campfire, he confirmed that both Matthew McConaughey (Detective Rustin “Rust” Cohle) and Woody Harrelson (Detective Martin “Marty” Hart), had even sat down for a table read of the script – then dubbed True Detective: The Return.
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“Shame we’ll probably never get to film it… What a story. Ah, well,” Pizzolatto caveated in the Instagram post above.
During a recent appearance on Tim Green’s Nothing Left Unsaid podcast, Nic Pizzolatto indicated he had another Rust & Marty-centric affair cooking. One that, while not yet committed to a screenplay, would welcome the apparently enthusiastic return of the series’ original leading men.
“I actually have another story for Cohle and Hart that, who knows, maybe we’ll do it one day,” said the Emmy-nominated showrunner and producer (via Deadline), before clarifying it wasn’t a strict continuation of season 1’s plot.
“But no, there is pressure, but I don’t really feel or respond to pressure that way. I get pressure [from] myself and beyond that it doesn’t exist so much for me, and pressure tends to more revolve around, am I discharging my duty correctly for me?”
Naturally, Pizzolatto was evasive about the plot details.
“If I said something on your show, there would be like five spec scripts going around Hollywood. No, I mean, it’s character-based again, that’s all, but it’s not something I’ve written or anything. It’s just, ‘Oh, I had that in my head,’ and we’ve talked about getting back together and doing it and I think the guys are open to it. It’s just a question of whether that would ever happen or not.”
While Issa López’s True Detective latest franchise instalment (subtitled Night Country) drew a direct connection between itself and the debut season – specifically with the otherworldly inclusion of Rust’s late survivalist father Travis Cohle, the Tuttle death cult, and that eerie spiral motif – a decade later, none of the ensuing chapters have replicated the magic of the first.
Or basic storytelling structure, for that matter.
Regardless, HBO clearly sees value in expanding the cinematic universe, hence why True Detective season 5 is still going ahead. And this time, it’ll be against the living-breathing backdrop of the partially man-made southern estuary that is Jamaica Bay, New York.
“Issa has a lot to say, not unlike she did with Night Country. It’s a different milieu but just as powerful,” HBO Head of Drama Series & Film, Francesca Orsi, told Deadline at The White Lotus season 3 premiere, adding that filming is slated to begin in the coming months.
“I’m really excited about it. We have a small writers’ room going with Issa; she’s excited. We just gave notes on the first two episodes, the entire season. Honestly, I can’t wait for this to go. It’s all about casting and getting this ready.”
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While nobody has been locked in just yet, Orsi noted the fifth instalment will be spearheaded by three leads: two male and one female. The HBO exec also earmarked 2027 as its tentative release window.
Lopez added elsewhere: “It’s very important for me, and I worked a lot in Night Country about this, to create the feeling that this is the same universe.”
“That the events that happened in the first season, and the weird s**t that happens in the first season affects this sensation of, ‘There’s something bigger than us and darker than what we can imagine behind the scenes.’”
Keep an eye out on both fronts here.
